Elena woke hot and damp and kicked the blankets off. She sat there with a heaviness low down at her cervix, and she slid a hand between her legs to check that nothing had happened to her in the night. She looked down. She was absolutely fine.
Then she lay back and a spike of arousal went through her, so sharp she folded onto her side with her knees drawn up. She was not thinking of anyone or anything, and nothing had happened to bring it on. *So horny, for no reason at all. What is going on with me?*
After a while it ebbed. Yesterday came back to her, and she wondered what the hell that had just been. *Maybe it's the change of environment.* The room lay quiet around her, every surface clear, a cold bright light at the tall window. She sat up, and her pussy was soaked with her own juices.
She went to the marble bathroom and washed, and then she dressed from the closet in brand new jeans a little too big for her, a brand new grey T-shirt, and open house sandals that were also a little too big. The clothes were all right, she supposed. The T-shirt she liked, though, because it was soft and the material was very strong, and it was probably expensive.
She went along the upstairs hallway and down toward the gallery, glad to have the morning to herself. On the stairs, a woman in a neat dark dress found her and smiled.
"Good morning. How did you sleep? The Alpha's gone to his office downtown for the day, but I'll take you through for breakfast."
She led Elena down across the entrance hall and the main hall to the breakfast room, where the table was laid beside the terrace doors. Elena sat down to eggs and toast and black coffee that someone had gone out of their way to find. Everyone in the house treated her as a guest, and she could use that if she asked only what a pleasant guest would.
"Could I borrow a phone? Just to let a few people know where I am."
"I don't have a phone on me, but there are phones on the second floor."
"Thanks. I'll need to go to my flat and get my things, too. I can't live in these."
"Of course. I'll let the Alpha know, and he'll arrange for someone to collect your things."
If the housekeeper told the Alpha, Roman would know she had been trying to get out.
"Oh, no, that's okay. Don't worry about it. It's fine."
After breakfast she went to explore the ground floor, starting in the entrance hall, because the phones upstairs could wait. She was already down here. A man and a woman crossed the floor with linen over their arms, and they stopped when they saw her.
"Congratulations! You're so lucky, truly."
"The whole house is delighted for you."
Elena thought of her clients waiting at the locked gym door, past the time her class should have started, and she turned to the man.
"I need to go to my gym. Can you help me get to the South Side?"
"I can't do it myself, but I can let the Alpha know you want to go to the South Side, and he'll arrange an escort for you."
"You know what? Forget about it. It's already a bit late, isn't it?"
They went on, and she went back through the doorway under the stairs to the main hall. A maid came along it with a tray, and slowed when Elena stepped into her path.
"I'd like to go shopping."
"Of course. I'll let the Alpha know the Luna wants to go shopping, and he'll arrange an escort for her."
"When is the escort going to arrive? Can I have it now?"
"Yes. I just need to inform the Alpha, and he can sort it out for you."
Even leaving with an escort needed his consent. The maid had already turned to go and call him.
"No, it's okay. Don't worry about it."
The maid smiled and went, her soles soft on the boards. Elena stood alone in the main hall. The people in this house were no help, because every one of them was Roman's and all three she had asked would tell him.
A footman crossed the far end with a crate of winter apples, nodding to her as he went. And the whole system was his too, the country, the courts, the police. Taking her was lawful here, and his people saw it as a good thing, so calling the police would only send her back to him.
A gardener passed the terrace doors with a barrow, and the wind pushed at the glass. She knew what a mate was. Roman would keep her, and if she ran he would come looking. So she needed to know the way out first. Then back to the South Side somehow, and low, away from her flat, her gym and her family, until she could leave the country. She would start with the woods.